November 2021 | Page 3 of 19 | My Crime Library

Larry Puckett Mississippi Execution

Larry Puckett was executed by the State of Mississippi for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Larry Puckett would sexually assault and murder Rhonda Hatten Griffis, who was his bosses wife. Larry Puckett who was an 18 year old former Eagle Scout would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Larry Puckett would be executed by lethal injection on March 20 2012

Larry Puckett More News

A Mississippi man who was an 18-year-old Eagle Scout when he was charged with murder was executed Tuesday for the 1995 sexual assault and slaying of the wife of his former boss.

Larry Matthew Puckett, 35, was put to death by injection and pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said. Puckett was convicted of the Oct. 14, 1995, killing of Rhonda Hatten Griffis, a 28-year-old mother of two who lived northeast of Hattiesburg in Petal.

While Puckett’s supporters claimed that the woman’s husband killed her in a jealous rage, the victim’s mother said she found Puckett in the home holding an axe handle, which prosecutors said was used in the killing.

“I caught him in her house with the club in his hand,” Nancy Hatten told The Associated Press on Friday. “Her husband wasn’t anywhere on the premises at the time. He drove up later.”

Griffis’ husband found his wife’s battered body in the living room, according to court records. Puckett had worked as a landscaper for Griffis’ husband, and the crime occurred weeks before Puckett was scheduled to leave for basic training with the Navy.

Puckett, who ran from the home, was captured two days later. He confessed to being at the Griffis’ home to burglarize it, but claimed Griffis’ husband killed her, according to court records. Puckett was sentenced to death on Aug. 5, 1996.

Supporters who insisted Puckett was innocent rallied Monday at the state Capitol in Jackson alongside the man’s mother, Mary Puckett. They raised a sign that read “Take a Stand, Save Matt” and many wore black T-shirts with words in white lettering: “Save Matt.”

But Gov. Phil Bryant refused to grant a reprieve after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon denied his final petition. Bryant said in a statement as the execution hour loomed that he had reviewed the case but decided against intervening.

“In light of Mr. Puckett’s having been convicted by a jury of his peers more than 15 years ago and after a review of the facts associated with his case, I have decided not to grant clemency and will not delay the execution,” Bryant’s statement said. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family.”

Earlier, Puckett spent his final hours receiving his parents, brothers, uncle and a spiritual adviser at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, where the death chamber is housed. He requested a last meal of Macadamia nut pancakes, shrimp and grits, ice cream cake, caramel candy and root beer.

Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said the man’s mood was “somber” in the hours before the execution. Epps said he talked to Puckett about his childhood and becoming an Eagle Scout, but he did not want to talk about the crime for which he was convicted.

“He said there’s more to the story and he denied committing the crime,” Epps said.

Epps said Puckett requested that his relatives and lawyer not watch the execution. Griffis’ parents were on the witness list.

Thousands of people had signed an online petition in support of Puckett, insisting on his innocence. They had hoped to persuade Bryant to stop the execution.

Puckett has spent much of his time on death row writing letters to friends and family and essays on a variety of topics, including musing about what it will be like to be executed.

“Now picture yourself surrounded by big burly men with firm grips on you as they direct you to the execution chamber. The excitement and base fear course through you like no other time in your life. You sweat, you pant, you want them to stop. They won’t, they can’t, the whole process is inexorable,” he wrote on a website that prints prisoners’ letters. “Ironically, at the moment of your death your body proves to you are the most alive.”

Puckett has requested that his body be released to his mother, Mary Puckett.

Mary Puckett said at Monday’s rally that her son’s treatment was unfair from the start.

“Like a lot of people, I thought if someone was convicted of a crime, they were probably guilty,” Puckett said. “But if this can happen to us, it can happen to anyone.”

Hatten said she’s convinced the right man was convicted in her daughter’s death. Hatten described her daughter as a woman who deeply loved her husband and children and stayed busy taking care of them.

An only child, Griffis was nearly finished with college when she became pregnant and dropped out to make a home. She hoped someday to finish her degree in social work at the University of Southern Mississippi.

“She loved us and helped us and did what she could do for us,” Hatten said. “She was always a joy to us.”

Another Mississippi death row inmate, William Mitchell, 61, faces scheduled execution Thursday. Mitchell had been out of prison on parole for less than a year for a 1975 murder when he was charged with raping and killing Patty Milliken, 38.

Milliken disappeared on Nov. 21, 1995, after walking out of a convenience store where she worked in Biloxi to have a cigarette with Mitchell. Her body was found the next day under a bridge. She had been strangled, beaten, sexually assaulted, and repeatedly run over by a vehicle, according to court records.

https://www.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2012/03/larry_matthew_puckett_executed.html

Timothy Stemple Oklahoma Execution

Timothy Stemple was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of his wife. According to court documents Timothy Stemple would report his wife missing, the next day her body would be found badly beaten. Turns out Timothy Stemple took out a large insurance policy on her and proceeded to beat her to death with a baseball bat. Timothy Stemple would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Timothy Stemple would be executed by lethal injection on March 15, 2012.

Timothy Stemple More News

An Oklahoma man convicted of killing his wife with help from a relative of his mistress to collect insurance money was put to death by injection Thursday.

Timothy Shaun Stemple shook his head no when asked if he had any last words, as members of his family and his wife’s sat separately from each other watching the condemned man through glass.

The 46-year-old Stemple gasped for about 20 seconds, his eyes opened and he groaned. He then laid still with closed eyes and his face turned pale. He was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m.

His family had asked the governor to stay the execution so that medical testimony disputing his accomplice’s account of the 1996 attack on Trisha Stemple could be heard in court. Stemple’s mother, his 21-year-old daughter and his sisters held each other by their hands and arms as he was being put to death. One of his sisters held his crying daughter’s face close to hers.

Afterward, Trisha Stemple’s sister, Deborah Ruddick-Bird, said the day was not about Timothy Stemple. She said it was “about justice, finality and closure for my gorgeous sister, Trisha, and my family.”

“Today we put a period at the end of the chapter that held us captive for far too long,” Ruddick-Bird told reporters. “Today we breathe again. Today we move forward and move on.”

Trisha Stemple, 30, was beaten with a plastic-covered baseball bat and run over by a pickup truck Oct. 24, 1996, along a Tulsa highway. Her husband maintained his innocence throughout the trial and appeals process. And at a clemency hearing last month, he declined to address Pardon and Parole Board members.

The board denied his plea for clemency.

https://www.oklahoman.com/article/feed/360187/oklahoma-executes-man-for-wifes-1996-slaying

Robert Towery Arizona Execution

Robert Towery was executed by the State of Arizona for the murder of a man during a home invasion. According to court documents Robert Towery and an accomplice would force their way into the victims home and proceeded to murder Mark Jones who Towery knew. Mark Jones was injected with battery acid and strangled to death. Robert Towery would be sentenced to death. His accomplice was under eighteen and was sentenced to life. Robert Towery would be executed by lethal injection on March 8 2012

Robert Towery More News

Robert Towery, a 47-year-old Mesa man who spent the last two decades of his life on death, was executed late this morning at the state prison in Florence.Towery’s last-minute appeals didn’t pass muster, and prison officials injected the inmate with the poisonous chemicals that killed him.
He was charged in the brutal 1991 killing of 69-year-old philanthropist Mark Jones, a Paradise Valley man known for providing dozens of University of Arizona students with scholarship funds.
Jones as we noted in a Valley Fever blog post yesterday, invited Towery–an acquaintance–and another man into his residence. The pair were there to rob Jones, and according to Towery’s accomplice, Towery also had designs on killing him.
Jones died of manual strangulation with a plastic tie, and Towery’s cohort, Randy Allen Barker, later told police (and a Maricopa County jury) that Towery had injected the victim with battery acid. Prosecutors never could definitively prove the latter, but they had more than enough evidence to win a conviction on first-degree murder and other charges.

In return for his testimony against Towery, prosecutors cut co-conspirator Barker a pretty sweet deal. Barker was released from prison in 2001 after serving about ten years.
As we wrote yesterday, Robert “Chewie” Towery, a violent criminal with a yen for meth, ad pulled himself together behind bars in recent years, and reconnected with family members, including his college-age son.
We corresponded with Towery in recent months, and he invited us to attend his execution, which he fully expected would occur as scheduled.
We declined, having no desire to watch the government stick a needle into a condemned man behind a glass retaining wall.
Our old colleague Mike Kiefer of the Arizona Republic reported that Towery’s last meal consisted of a porterhouse steak, baked potato with sour cream, asparagus, mushrooms, milk, Pepsi and apple pie a la mode.
If we still have a death penalty in place at this late date, and it is supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst, Robert Towery had it coming to him.
He may not have died as the worst person around, but the vile and violent acts he perpetrated upon Mr. Jones put him in that category when it counted–when he chose to murder.
But, just saying, locking Towery up, throwing away the key, and letting him exist in that netherworld known as the Arizona State Prison until he died would have been just fine with us.

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/robert-towery-executed-by-lethal-injection-in-florence-murdered-paradise-valley-philanthropist-in-91-6627696

Keith Thurmond Texas Execution

Keith Thurmond was executed by the State of Texas for the murders of his estranged wife and her boyfriend. According to court documents Keith Thurmond would shoot and kill Sharon Anne Thurmond, and her boyfriend, Guy Sean Fernandes in front of their eight year old child. Keith Thurmond would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Keith Thurmond would be executed by lethal injection on March 12 2012

Keith Thurmond More News

Unlike the two people he gunned down as they fled in terror for their lives on Sept. 25, 2001, Keith Steven Thurmond died peacefully at 6:22 p.m. March 7 by lethal injection in Huntsville.

Thurmond was executed for the capital murders of his estranged wife, Sharon Anne Thurmond, and her boyfriend, Guy Sean Fernandes, as the Thurmonds’ 8-year-old son watched.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal for a stay of execution about an hour before the scheduled execution time of 6 p.m. Moments after the lethal cocktail started flowing through his veins, Thurmond proclaimed his innocence.

“All I want to say is I’m innocent. I didn’t kill my wife. Jack Leary shot my wife, then her dope dealer Guy Fernandes,” Thurmond said. “Don’t hold it against me, Bill.”

Then with his voice rising and quavering, “I swear to God I didn’t kill her,” he said.

He lowered his voice to a more resigned tone to say finally, “Go ahead and finish it off. You can taste it.”

Thurmond then began gasping for air and fell silent. Several minutes later, he was pronounced dead.

None of Thurmond’s family members were present to watch his final moments; his only witnesses were activists opposing the death penalty.

Three members of Sharon Thurmond’s family – her brother and two nieces – witnessed the execution, as did the father, brother and sister of Guy Fernandes. The family members declined to speak with the media afterward.

But Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Jim Prewitt, who successfully convicted Thurmond in 2002 and convinced jurors to sentence Thurmond to death, recounted the brutality of the murders in a statement.

“… it is my hope that the public takes the time to recognize the brutal nature of this crime, the impact domestic violence has in our communities and to remember the two victims who died at the hands of the defendant, Sharon Thurmond and Guy Fernandez (sic),” Prewitt stated in a release. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families … as well as our hope that tonight’s event will bring them some closure.”

Enraged by a protective order his wife had sought that was issued by a Montgomery County judge and served to him Sept. 25, 2001, Keith Thurmond grabbed a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun and headed across the street from his Magnolia-area house, just as Sharon Thurmond, Fernandes and the Thurmonds’ son were returning to Fernandes’ home.

The child later described to officers how he watched his father, with the gun, chase his mother around the yard while Fernandes ran into his home. The boy told investigators he saw his father shoot his mother “a couple of times and … then ran into Guy’s mobile home with the gun,” according to affidavits.

The boy then said he heard several shots, and he then ran to his house across the street.

As officers with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office were on their way to respond to a domestic disturbance call, Thurmond returned to his home and barricaded himself inside with his son. He released the boy a short time later and peacefully surrendered to police after holding them at bay for nearly two hours.

Sharon Thurmond had sought another protective order in 1998 against her husband, an air-conditioning technician and Kentucky native who had a ninth-grade education.

During Thurmond’s trial, a former girlfriend testified that he was violent and had raped her, and another girlfriend also testified about similar abuse.

While Thurmond was held in the Montgomery County Jail, he threatened a female detention officer, who testified that Thurmond threatened to snap her neck.

He also told the female detention officer, “What are they going to do? Kill me twice?”

https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/magnolia/news/article/Thurmond-dies-for-2001-double-murder-9554317.php

Robert Moormann Arizona Execution

Robert Moormann was executed by the State of Arizona for the murder of his mother. According to court documents Robert Moormann was serving a nine year to life prison sentence for kidnapping when he was given a three day furlough. During the furlough Robert Moormann would murder his adopted mother and dismember her body. Robert Moormann would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Robert Moormann would be executed by lethal injection on February 29, 2012

Robert Moormann More News

Robert Moormann was in prison in Florence serving a sentence of 9-years to life for kidnapping.

In January of 1984, his adoptive mother Roberta traveled to Florence to see him during a 3-day furlough he was granted. They stayed at the Blue Mist Motel.

On the morning of Friday January 13, Moormann bought a buck knife, a steak knife and some food. He later went to a pizza place where he knew the owner and told the owner that he was on furlough visiting his mother and that she wasn’t feeling well.

Around 9 a.m., Moormann went to the motel desk and told them he didn’t want to be disturbed and asked that the maid not make up the room. He also asked for some disinfectant spray.

Roberta’s friend came by the motel later that day to drop off Roberta’s suitcase, but Moormann told her his mother was already gone, even though the friend saw Roberta’s purse in the room. Moormann asked the friend if she would throw away some garbage bags, but the suspicious friend refused his request.

Moormann continued throughout the day to try to get cooperation in disposing of the garbage bags from the motel owner and the pizza parlor owner saying they were filled with spoiled meat and animal parts. They all refused his request.

The suspicious pizza parlor owner contact Florence police who went to the motel room around 10:30 p.m. that night. They asked Moormann how his mother was, because they had heard that she was ill. Moormann told the police that she was feeling better and had actually left to vosit a woman around 6 p.m. He also told police he was concerned because he hadn’t heard from her since then.

The police ;later watched Moormann’s room; the man came out of the room and told officers that his mother still hadn’t returned and he was concerned because she was on medication.

Still looking to dispose of the body, Moormann contacted a lieutenant at the prison and told him that his cousin had dropped off some dog bones a couple of days earlier and that he needed to get rid of them since his mother was out visiting and that the dumpster at the motel was full.”

The lieutenant agreed to help and brought his truck over to the motel where a box was put in the bed of the truck.

The lieutenant was later contacted by police who told him that Moormann was acting suspiciously and his mother was missing. The lieutenant told them about the box and when they looked inside they saw what looked like human remains.

It was early the next morning when Moormann left the room to use a pay phone that the police moved in under orders not to allow Moormann back into the room. Moormann was asked to stay in the patrol car.

Soon other officers, once they had confirmed the bones were human, arrested Moormann.

After his arrest, Moormann made statements to police indicating an incestuous relationship. He said, “(he) lost his cool” when his mother made him “take his father’s place” and “do things he just couldn’t handle.” However, there was no physical evidence that anything sexual took place that night.

In the room police found blood stained bedding, floors and walls, and “Roberta’s brassiere hanging in the closet with five hundred dollars in cash safety-pinned to it.”

In trash dumpsters near the motel police found the rest of Roberta’s remains.

In Moormann’s prison cell, officials found bizarre writings and a will supposedly from Roberta that left all her assets to Moormann.

Incidentally in the woman’s real will, she had already left her estate to Moorman, but said he was incompetent to handle his affairs and left the money in a trust.

https://www.abc15.com/news/crime/death-row-diary-man-executed-for-killing-mom-while-on-furlough-from-prison